"The general aim of this research is to understand how the orgasm builds up from genital stimulation and what parts of the brain become recruited and finally build up into an orgasm."

The animation is made up of a sequence of brain scans of Nan Wise, a 54-year-old PhD student and sex therapist in Komisaruk's lab.

The video shown is comprised of 20 sequential snapshots of the fMRI data, taken from a seven-minute sequence.

Over the course of the seven minutes, the participant approaches orgasm, reaches orgasm and then enters a quiet period.

Oxygen utilization levels are displayed on a spectrum from dark red (lowest activity) to yellow/white (highest). As can be observed, an orgasm leads to almost the entire brain illuminating yellow, indicating that most brain systems become active at orgasm.

"We're using orgasm as a way of producing pleasure. If we can learn how to activate the pleasure regions of the brain then that could have wider applications," Komisaruk said.